HIFU in the News

Veterinary College Launches Pioneering Study to Advance Cancer Treatment in Dogs and People

Published April 26, 2018

When Kitty Smith, of Christiansburg, Virginia, learned her 9-year-old cocker spaniel, Maddi Lynn Grace, had been diagnosed with a soft tissue sarcoma on her left front leg earlier this year, she knew right away that she would take her beloved companion to the Virginia-Maryland College of Veterinary Medicine at Virginia Tech for treatment.

Smith’s swift decision was informed by prior experience with the high-quality specialty care at the college’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

Dr. Michael Lazar from HIFU Prostate Services on CEO Money

Published March 20, 2018

Dr. Michael Lazar - California HIFU Medical Director – HIFU Prostate Serviceshttp://californiahifu.com/ HIFU (High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound) is a minimally-invasive surgical procedure recently introduced to the U.S, and only available in a few markets. Yet, its continued use by surgeons is leading to increased interest in the device’s effectiveness – especially amid a national trend that sees more younger men being diagnosed with early-stage prostate cancer each year.

A slower-acting cancer than others, many older men (65+) choose not to seek treatment to avoid the often-harmful after-effects of surgery or radiation. However, younger men (40+), have little choice but to accept treatment, or face early death. In development for several years, HIFU offers hope where traditional surgical methods have left men scarred physically and mentally. A robotics-based device using focused sound waves to heat and destroy cancerous tissue in the prostate, many patients are able to eradicate prostate cancer without suffering the after-effects of traditional treatment (which can include erectile dysfunction and incontinence).

Less May Be More in Prostate Cancer Treatment

By Ariela Katz Published: September 20, 2017

Destroying part of the prostate to treat prostate cancer may be just as effective as removing the entire organ, but without many of the distressing side effects that tend to accompany the more invasive operation, according to investigators in the United Kingdom.

Based on the results of a feasibility study, the researchers are moving forward with a randomized controlled trial that will compare partial prostate ablation with radical prostatectomy in patients with intermediate-risk prostate cancer, according to a presentation at the American Urological Association’s 2017 Annual Meeting, held in May in Boston.

In partial ablation, the portion of the prostate gland containing the tumor is destroyed through one of several types of “focal therapies,” while the rest of the organ is left intact. In the feasibility study, investigators used high-intensity focused ultrasound to achieve partial prostate ablation. In the randomized trial, they hope to also include cryotherapy (freezing), focal brachytherapy (radiation) and vascular targeted photodynamic (light-activated) therapy.

High intensity focused ultrasound, known as HIFU lowers risk of side effect

ORLANDO, Fla. - Other than skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer in American men. However treating it can lead to unwanted side effects, which is what Walt Parks wanted to avoid. "I knew that I had to find something that would not put me down and keep me bringing in an income," he said. Parks is a massage therapist and fitness instructor. When he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, he knew traditional treatments like surgery and radiation were not for him.Parks opted for a treatment called High intensity focused ultrasound, also known as HIFU. It was approved in the United States two years ago and for that reason, it's still relatively unknown.

Prostate cancer targeting younger men at alarming rate

And when there aren't signs in the early stages, it's up to you to get ahead of it.

May 11, 2017 | Brooke Hasch

LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WHAS11) – It's often thought of as your grandfather's cancer, but that's no longer the case. Prostate cancer is aggressively targeting our younger generations of men at an alarming rate and when there aren't signs in the early stages, it's up to you to get ahead of it. More than 26,000 men will die from prostate cancer this year. That was not an option for John DeCamillis. "As I tell people Brooke, it wasn't a matter of if I was going to be diagnosed. I'd planned on eventually dealing with it. It was more a matter of when," DeCamillis said. His family history sealed his fate. A grandfather diagnosed with prostate cancer in his 70's. His father in his 60's. His uncles, too. The well-known Louisville attorney started screening for it when he was just 45, an age most physicians would agree is a good place to start.

Top Honoree: Advancements in Health Care " Dr. Michael O. Koch "

Good things take time, especially in health care. A treatment for prostate cancer that became available at Indiana University Health about a year ago was 20 years in the making. But it was worth the wait, thanks largely to the efforts of Dr. Michael O. Koch, who has been pursuing the use of high-intensity focused ultrasound, or HIFU, for the treatment of prostate cancer since shortly after he arrived at IU to chair its urology department in 1998.

Koch, 60, learned about HIFU from Naren Sanghvi, who at the time was an IU School of Medicine professor studying the technology. HIFU was being explored as a treatment for benign enlargement of the prostate, but Koch thought treating highly localized prostate cancer would be a better use for it and embarked on a journey that resulted in the treatment’s receiving U.S. Food & Drug Administration approval in October 2015.

One of the most powerful women on Wall Street is the second person in New York to have this cutting-edge procedure

By Lydia Ramsey | Business Insider – Sun, Sep 4, 2016 18:00 BST

Alexandra Lebenthal, the president and CEO of municipal bond company Lebenthal & Co., has lived with essential tremor since she was 3 years old. It's made daily tasks like taking a sip of coffee a much more complicated task.

For this month's cancer awareness campaign Urologist and Prostate cancer expert Dr. Michael Lazar provides an overview of prostate cancer screening options, helping to empower men to make smart choices.

September is Prostate Cancer Awareness Month giving light to a very important health topic among men and their families. Second only to skin cancer, prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men in the USA and the second most common cause of cancer related death, lung cancer taking the number one spot. Currently it is estimated that one man in seven will be diagnosed with prostate cancer during his lifetime.

New treatment can help patients with prostate cancer

“When you focus the energy like that, it creates heat and destroys whatever area it’s focused on,” says Dr. Mike Koch, the chairman of the urology department at the IU School of Medicine."

Over 230,000 men are diagnosed with prostate cancer every year. For those who need treatment, but want to reduce the side effects, there is a new tool being used at IU Health hospitals. It’s called HIFU or high intensity focused ultrasound.

New Technology for Non-Invasive Prostate Treatment

Robert Pugach, MD Leads Way in Offering Men Minimally Invasive HIFU Treatment for Prostate Cancer

LOS ANGELES, Calif., July 05, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Western States HIFU, in partnership with HIFU Prostate Services, the first and most experienced company to provide HIFU treatment for prostate cancer, is proud to announce that physician partner, Robert Pugach, MD, has treated the most HIFU patients in the western United States.

Surgery Without Scalpels – The Next Big Thing?

Focused ultrasound could one day treat Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s, cancer, even depression and OCD. Dr. Sanjay Gupta reports for Everyday Health.

What is HIFU treatment for prostate cancer?

In October 2015, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the first ultrasound system for the ablation of prostate tissue in the United States. This new treatment called high-intensity focused ultrasound or HIFU, is a technology using ultrasound waves to destroy cancerous tissue found in the prostate gland.

Researchers publish free open-source-focused ultrasound system online

The next step in the explosive interest in focused ultrasound may well be thanks to a Vanderbilt research team's online posting of instructions for their new bench-top pre-clinical "do-it-yourself" system.

MALAKOFF, 8 June 2016 – THERACLION (Alternext, FR0010120402 – ALTHE), a company specialized in leading-edge medical equipment for echotherapy, announced today that Tübingen University has presented promising Echotherapy results from its breast fibroadenoma (BFA) trial. 90% of BFA patients treated with Echotherapy presented at 12 months post-treatment with no vital fibroadenoma tissue.

How Patient Groups Have Begun To Influence The Value And Coverage Debate

In 2015, two issues related to medicine could be relied on to generate headlines: drug pricing and the proliferation of new value frameworks that claimed to define the value and even the price of drugs in seemingly easy-to-understand ways. In none of the high-profile skirmishes on pricing or frameworks was the voice or perspective of patients and patient groups very much in evidence. But that is beginning to change, in an evolution of a broader shift in the role that patients are playing in the research and development (R&D) enterprise.

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